More from charter school fight

Our late deadlines require tighter stories from night meetings. So here are some more details from the International Charter School of Schenectady’s often emotional meeting with the state’s Charter School Institute tonight that we couldn’t include. The Institute might recommend the school close this year. (This is obviously more school related than politics related. But then again, what issue involving schools, money and state government isn’t political?)

- The charter school claimed in its statements tonight that the Charter School Institute met with former charter school director Sam Panceal (who the board fired last month) before making its draft recommendation last week that the school close.

- The charter school turned in reams of information this week to convince the Institute to change its mind. Included in that was a request to apply to change the school’s charter all together (it was originally chartered to be run by a management company. Now that they’re gone, the school is self-governed by a board of trustees). The Institute isn’t sure what to make of this request. It might delay the release of the final recommendation, which was supposed to happen Friday or thereabouts.

- Board president Tracy Petersen said that while the charter school’s management company deserved to get the boot, the board handled the leadership changes after that poorly. The school is now on its third director in a year. That, along with problems getting public school buses to students this past fall, is perhaps why students and teachers have left, dragging down enrollment.